Is Your Data Secure?

The Quiz Your Small Business Needs To Take

Posted Dec 12, 2017

It’s not just the “big guys” that become the victims of a data breach. It happens to businesses of all shapes and sizes. This quiz will help you determine if you’re leaving your business exposed to a data breach and how to remedy it right now.

Who has access to your secure company information?

Employees? Contractors? Do they have passwords written down or saved to their computer?

You have people in your business that need access to confidential and private information. Maybe you have employees handling your social media accounts, a bookkeeper needing access to financial data or a consultant needing access to company meeting notes. Whatever the case, using an app like LastPass, which enable users to login without actually giving them the password, is super smart. There are also admin controls and even reports you can run to ensure you and your users are properly accessing data.

What are your employees doing online on your network?

If you haven’t outlined an Internet policy on what sites your employees can access on your network, you should create one. And better yet, block websites you don’t want accessed by using Internet Options to maintain security and not open your business up to a potential hack. If you aren’t sure what should be included in your Internet policy, here are some ideas on what to cover. Here is additional language you can review and tailor to meet the needs of your business. As with anything you find online, you should check it with a lawyer to ensure accuracy before implementing.

Double check that your current firewall is doing what it needs to do.

A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and decides whether to allow or block specific traffic based on a defined set of security rules. Contact your IT professional to ensure your firewall is working for you.

Is your Wi-Fi network secure and do you have a guest network?

There are five ways to secure it discussed in this article. Be sure your password is not something simple or anything to do with your business. It’s scary how many articles there are out there on hacking into Wi-Fi networks. And it’s also scary the number of people who have not yet adopted smart password practices. Strengthen your password and protect your business.

And if you want to offer guests Wi-Fi access, be sure you do so with a separate network. For example, if you run a cafe and you want patrons to be able to access the Internet, set up a guest network with its own name and password that you are comfortable sharing. Here are six reasons why a guest network is so valuable and how it protects you.

Are you performing updates and backups regularly?

If not, start. Talk with your tech support person or do the research and figure it out for yourself. It’s not hard and it’s incredibly important. In case of a data breach, or an “act of God” like a fire, tornado or flood, you need your vital data saved off-site.

Use a local backup, like an external hard drive, and then something cloud-based like Dropbox or Google Docs. Here are some additional tips on when and how to backup your data.

No matter what type of website hosting you use, there are options to add additional security layers. Talk to your web developer to determine what you need. For example, if you use a WordPress based site, there are free resources like Wordfence that alert you when an update is needed.

This is just the beginning of data security. Either do your homework (if you’re a DIY person) or speak with a data security professional to help you determine what steps your business might need to take. This is an area of your business where being overly cautious is not a bad thing.